Britons enjoy one final late night out before Boris Johnson’s 10pm closing time comes into force 

Brits were spotted in their masses heading out for one final late night on Wednesday just before Boris Johnson’s new coronavirus measures come into play. 

The Prime Minister has today ordered pubs and restaurants to stop serving at 10pm, considerably earlier than most establishments across the country. 

And owners will be forced to kick customers out of their premises before the cut-off point or risk a fine. 

The new measures, which also outlaw customers from ordering drinks at a bar, will come into full effect as of today.  

But revellers took advantage of their last night of freedom as they stepped out in full force up and down the country. 

Fun-seekers were spotted flouting social-distancing rules while mingling outside pubs and bars and even heavy rain in the north west of the UK didn’t stop partygoers from enjoying their last night out. 

Women were seen sporting their glad rags while some men donned smart suits and others hooded sweatshirts to combat the downpour. 

Some were seen desperately trying to protect their finery by holding jackets and blazers of their heads while others huddled together in large groups to stay out of the wet. 

Revellers in Leeds, London and Middlesborough were seen taking full advantage of the last night of normal opening hours as they nursed drinks throughout the evening. 

Mr Johnson’s measures will come into effect the day after 6,178 more cases of coronavirus were reported and health chiefs announced 37 more deaths. 

Data shows that 4,501 new Covid-19 infections are now being recorded each day, on average, up from 3,286 last Wednesday. The UK yesterday became just the 14 country in the world to pass the milestone of 400,000 cases, after another 4,926 patients tested positive for the disease.  

Police federation chiefs have blasted Boris Johnson’s new rules as ‘absurd’ and ‘a nonsense’ as small business owners say they will go bust if workers stay home again.

The Prime Minister faced fire from all sides as he U-turned on his push to reopen workplaces after just a few weeks to tell office staff to work from home if they can.

He was barbed for introducing new measures including a 10pm pub curfew and £200 fines for mask rule-breakers among new restrictions on social settings in England.

The PM also announced he is making the British Army available to help the police enforce stringent new coronavirus rules.

He said officers will now have the ‘option to draw on military support where required’ to free up staff so more can crackdown on rule-breakers as he revealed fines are being doubled to £200.

But Downing Street ruled out deploying soldiers on the streets, saying they would be used for ‘backfilling certain duties, such as office roles and guarding protected sites, so police can be out enforcing the virus response’.

Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation Ken Marsh slammed the announcement as ‘a nonsense’ and National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales John Apter said it ‘lacked any detail’.

Meanwhile Chief Executive of UKHospitality Kate Nicholls described the restrictions as ‘another crushing blow’ for many businesses.

At the same time Tory MPs warned there must not be another ‘major lockdown’, saying the decision to ditch the back to work drive will cause ‘dismay’ among workers who live in ‘cramped, overcrowded accommodation’.

MP for Telford Lucy Allen even went as far to tweet ‘our collective health is not at risk’, flying in the face of the PM’s main message to the country.

Others also said their constituents would be furious at the new crackdown after they followed the rules only to have seen ‘people at protests, at street parties, not having action taken against them.

But Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Mr Johnson his actions did not go far enough as she banned people from visiting each other in their own homes in a bid to slash to Covid-19 R rate north of the border

The unveiling of the Government’s latest coronavirus clampdown came as: 

• Sir Keir Starmer used his first Labour conference speech as leader to warn that a second national lockdown would be a ‘sign of Government failure, not an act of God’ that would take an ‘immense toll’ on public health and the economy. 
• Sir Keir also claimed the ‘incompetence’ of the Government is ‘is holding Britain back’ and that the ‘underfunding of the NHS’ and the ‘abandonment of social care’ by the Conservatives had meant the UK was not prepared for the pandemic.
• Julian Knight, the Tory chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee, said without a ‘route map’ for getting spectators back to sports events ‘we risk decimation of our sporting and cultural infrastructure’. 
• Shares in some of Britain’s biggest pub chains felt the pinch following the announcement of the 10pm curfew as City Pub Group fell 6.6 per cent while Wetherspoons dropped 0.4 per cent.
• Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething welcomed the UK Government’s decision to revert back to working from home as he said it was ‘a welcome shift… that matches our position’. 
• Tory peer Andrew Lloyd Webber warned that commercial theatre will not survive unless the Government ‘steps up to the plate’.
• Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the increase in coronavirus cases is ‘extremely difficult news for all of us and the whole country’ as he said the Bank ‘will do everying we can do… to support the businesses and people of this country’. 
• The Government said that as of 9am on Tuesday there were a further 4,926 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the total to 403,551.

Metropolitan Police Federation Chairman Mr Marsh warned the rules are ‘nonsense’ and ‘absurd’. He told MailOnline: ‘In terms of the enforcement, for us it’s really difficult. I mean I’m not a massive fan of Nicola Sturgeon but at least she’s calling the shots correctly.

‘If someone snitches and says Mr Big has got 20 people in his house, then what are we going to do? Sit outside his house all evening and wait for people to come out and count them or something?

‘That’s one address. We’re talking about millions of addresses. It’s just a nonsense. It’s absolutely absurd. Why can’t they put in place what is in Scotland I have no idea.

‘Why? Why is ours six, but Scotland’s is no one? It’s not right and it just makes it so difficult for my colleagues to enforce when you can make it so crystal clear so it’s not ambiguous, there’s no way around it, these are the rules, adhere to them.’

He added: ‘But you know when you’ve got the Home Secretary saying snitch on your neighbours, well good luck with that one Priti Patel. How are we supposed to enforce that?’

National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales John Apter added: ‘More funding for policing this pandemic is much needed.

‘The service needs all the help it can get, as financial pressures on Forces are increasing day-by-day – but today’s announcement lacked any detail. We will wait for that before we celebrate too much. Since the start of this pandemic police and military have been working together on logistics.

‘This has and continues to work well; but the announcement from the Prime Minister has been seized by some as a suggestion that the military will be on streets helping the police to enforce Covid regulations. This is not what policing has asked for and not what it needs.’

Mr Apter added: ‘This is an ever-changing situation and police officers will continue to do an incredible job at adapting quickly.

‘The vast majority of the public complied with the restrictions placed on them. These restrictions affect us all, but this is about keeping each other as safe as possible.

‘I would hope the public will carry on doing the right thing to help protect fellow citizens to minimise the spread of the virus.’

The fresh restrictions also sparked anger from the hospitality sector, with UKHospitality’s Ms Nicholls describing them as ‘another crushing blow’ for many businesses.

She said: ‘A hard close time is bad for business and bad for controlling the virus – we need to allow time for people to disperse over a longer period.

‘Table service has been widely adopted in some parts of the sector since reopening but it is not necessary across all businesses, such as coffee shops.

‘It is hard to understand how these measures are the solution to fighting the disease when Government data shows that just 5 per cent of infections out of the home are related to hospitality.’